Children at risk of predators

November 7, 2008

Forty-seven children, ages 13-17, have been rescued from vicious predators who would have subjected them to lives of prostitution, the FBI revealed last week. Seventy-three adults have been charged with victimizing the children.

We hope fervently that federal law allows judges to send the pimps to prison for the rest of their lives.

FBI officials announced the three-day operation, in 29 cities, last week. In addition to the pimps taken into custody, 518 adult prostitutes were arrested. Any of them with knowledge that children were being used as prostitutes should be punished severely, too.

According to the authorities, the operation broke up 12 large-scale prostitution rings. That means that an average of nearly four children were being used in each of the rings.

Modern technology, including the Internet, has made it easier for pimps to victimize children. We encourage law enforcement agencies to respond to that by making it one of their very top priorities to find, arrest, and imprison those who would victimize children in any way.